We can’t control what we don’t know

This week I’ve been working on a proposal for a new client and been thinking about how we go about controlling the throughput of work in a particular process.

It starts from the premise that to be able to control a process you must have a full understanding of what is going on at each step:

We don’t know what we don’t know

If we can’t measure it, we really don’t know much about it

If we don’t know much about it, we can’t control it

If we can’t control it, we are at the mercy of chance

If you do know what is going on, measure the right things and really control what is happening then you have a pretty good chance of being able to reduce any variations in the process and improve your overall efficiency.

If you don’t you at the mercy of chance and who knows what that will result it!